Got home yesterday. It’s a cold, miserable evening out. Drizzle is falling, the sky is dark (sunset is at 4:30 pm now), and it’s just a great time to be inside.

Wife is at her computer. I hear frostbolts. She’s got a new character. A Troll Mage (“I didn’t have a Troll” she explains) on Steamwheedle Cartle server (since she’s got her ten already on Kirin Tor). This Mage, her 3rd, will be a Frost Mage. (Zauberin, Forsaken, is a Fire Mage, and Effilda, Human, is an Arcane Mage.) Katonga, her name, has purple hair, in that straight up pony tail style, purple skin, and a very pretty face. She’s completed the beginning zone quests and has moved on to Sen’jin Village. She’s level 6.

I can’t let the challenge go unanswered. “Hold up. I’ll join you.” But what class? I didn’t have any trolls either. Well, the one, over on the PvP server. Okay, Rogue. So I created him, gave him matching hair, matching skin, hair in the mohawk style of a rooster, and the sanest face I could find. I made him a Rogue. And named him Amani’jin. (Amani from the Forest Trolls Civilization, and ‘jin seems to be common in Troll names.)

Troll Mage and Rogue. I quickly rush through the beginning zone quests, and she comes up from Sen’jin, greets me, and we head back down there.

Rogue/Mage combo. Obviously one of us a healing class would have helped. Mage does the damage, takes the damage, and the healer heals, and better still the priest shields. AoE grinding at it’s fastest.

But I’m thinking this isn’t bad synergy, this Mage/Rogue combo. FROST Mage and a Rogue. What we found working well was: I’d start moving towards the mob and by then she’d have hit it with a frostbolt so rather than aggroing on me, or even if it did: “I’m not a threat (Honest!)”, it continues on past me to her, and slowly. I spin around and follow it, as she hits it with a fireball and I’m backstabbing the whole way. It’s dead before it reaches her. Sometimes a mob will charge. Easy enough to stop in it’s tracks with a gouge. Or the mob will cast. Again, gouge. If we have multiple mobs, we’ve got sheeping and sap/gouge as crowd control. And between a Mage and a Rogue, who’s got better DPS? She’s going herbalism/alchemy and that’ll bring in pots. She makes rolls and biscuits and that and bandaids I think we’re good.

We got level 10 quests (Zalazane) done while we were level 7. We otherwise completed all the Sen’jin quests, moved up to Razorhill and did those quests. And we ground a little on Harpies to ding level 10. She ran back to Sen’jin to get a Mage quest done. I picked up a cheap +AP dagger in the Auction House, and she got a robe.

That was fun. It was enjoyable to be in the newbie area again.

But since she’s in the Barrens now with her Tauren Hunter character (Hialeah) she wants to skip that quest arc on these characters and go instead to Silverpine Forest. “Okay, mon. Tazdingo!”